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“IF YOU WANNA MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF AND MAKE A CHANGE!”

July 21, 2016

In level 4 Academic classes we have been discussing very deep and challenging topics in the last couple of weeks.

During week two, students dealt with such a complicated topic as immigration. Using the trailer of a must-watch movie called “Terraferma”, as well as analyzing sketches and drawings on immigration and refugees in Europe, students contrasted and compared differences between Europe and the US and engaged in a discussion about the ramifications of immigration. Together, we combed through the backdrop of the whole issue, arriving at the roots of immigration and understanding how the dots are all connected that make us all part of a vicious cycle: why are so many people fleeing their own countries? Who is responsible for the chaos, wars, corruption and poverty that so many countries in the world suffer? Who is to blame? Who benefits from such poverty and what is our role in it?
Week 3 has been devoted to how our food choices have an impact not only on our health and lives but how they in fact also affect pollution, global warming and inequality. We started the week understanding what a healthy diet is using the well-known Mediterranean diet as a model, and analyzed some governmental health campaigns in Spain. Students have also reflected on our eating habits, how such habits have changed over time, and the effect that our schedules, sleep and lifestyles have on our eating habits and therefore our health: “we are what we eat and we eat how we live”. Finally, we continued to delve into the “food” topic watching and discussing a – highly recommended - video titled “Together, we can cool the planet!” that helped us understand how we are part of a destructive agricultural exploitation system that causes about 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions that result in global warming. In addition, it affects people’s lives and health, both in developed and underdeveloped countries, in different ways. What is our role? What can we do if we don’t want to be part of such a system? Are there alternatives?

In level 4 Spanish academic classes we - students and myself!- have been learning about the world we live in and have been sharing thoughts, ideas and critical arguments in our very intense and enriching Spanish classes!